Expectations and Values of University Students in Transition: Evidence from an Australian Classroom

Abstract

Reforms in the functioning and purpose of higher education during the past 2 decades have created profound changes in the expectations and values of university students worldwide. Indeed, the values of entrepreneurship, vocational relevance, and commercial success have considerably displaced the traditional expectations of knowledge acquisition and dissemination. These sea changes in the role and functioning of universities have brought about significant stress at the classroom level, where the expectation gap between instructors and students has been widening. This article explores the expectations and value gaps of students in an Australian university during a period of 2 years in two different cycles by gathering evidence in an auto-reflective postcourse narrative survey. The key findings of the study indicate an overwhelming indication toward utilitarian and pragmatic outcomes. The article suggests some pedagogical reconceptualizations in response to the inevitable conflict between what is delivered and what is valued and expected.